Tag Archives: Aldi’s

The dessert that almost wasn’t: Brownie Dessert Pizza

25 May

The final product was well-worth the journey, although at the time I was questioning it!

Ever have one of those days where nothing seems to go quite right? Well Sunday was one of those days and we almost didn’t have dessert for our dinner company because of it.

It started out that I was supposed to hit the store on my way home from our troop’s car wash at 1:00 that afternoon to pick up the stuff I needed to make the dessert: brownie mix, strawberries and cream cheese.

I forgot. I hate that.

I got all the way home and I realized I hadn’t gone to the store.

I went back out to Aldi’s at 2pm.

Strawberries: check. Brownie mix: check. Cream cheese: check.

Go home, start the recipe, which I’ve had before as a Pampered Chef recipe, but came across my desk in an email from the 24/7 Moms blog that I follow, which listed five outrageous dessert pizzas. (Of course I had to check them out!) The email directed us to Simply Healthy Cooking with Pam to get the recipe, which I did. Apparently she changed it slightly to make it healthier. (Me throwing chocolate chips into the brownie mix probably canceled out whatever she did to make it healthy.)

The recipe said to use a 15″ round pizza stone and parchment paper so that the mix won’t run off the stone and into the oven. I didn’t have a round pizza stone but I had a large rectangular stone, so I used that.

Parchment Paper: check.

Big mess in the oven: check.

Using the stone didn’t quite go as I’d planned.

About five minutes into the bake time, I smell something burning. Sure enough it’s dessert. I peek in and the brownie is literally dripping down in big, huge, chunky drips, into the oven. I quickly pull out the stone, throw the whole thing into the sink next to me and proceed to wash the brownie mix down the drain.

“Hmmm…technical difficulties with dessert,” I post on my status update on on Facebook as I decide what to do.

Don volunteers to run back out and get me another brownie mix. I take him up on that (he’s such a good guy) and off he goes.

He comes back around 3:30, and in the meantime I’ve decided to use the large bar pan that Pampered Chef sells. It’s long like my pizza stone but has low edges, which apparently I needed to keep the  batter IN the pan.

So I try again. All goes well with the baking, the brownie pizza comes out looking just fine.

Brownie Pizza, Take II

I begin making my cream cheese topping with my block of cream cheese. But now, I’m looking at my topping and looking at my very long brownie pizza and I’m thinking, “I don’t have enough topping.”

My next thought: “I have to go back to the store for more cream cheese.”

I won’t write what my next thought was after that, but it’s at this point where I decide that I should’ve just put a bag of Oreo’s on the table for dessert and called it a day.

It’s now 5:40 pm as I sneak out the door while Don showers, and our company was due in 20 minutes.

This time I ran to Price Rite and got my second block of cream cheese and came home.

The good news is, it all worked out and everyone liked the dessert except Elizabeth who picked off the cream cheese layer and put the strawberries back on top.  Whatever…

I’d definitely make it again and you can too, in fact, I highly recommend that you try it. It was incredibly delicious.

The recipe and directions are below, and now that you know my story, none of these trials and tribulations will happen to you.

See? So beautiful! Sooooo delicious and so just not my day that day!

BROWNIE DESSERT PIZZA

INGREDIENTS

1 box Ghiradelli Brownie Mix (I wonder if this was my first problem. I just bought any mix and I wonder if it yields more batter than Ghiradelli does. )

Parchment Paper

1 lg. rd. 15″ pizza stone or a round pizza sheet (you now know, I used the large bar pan.)

8 ounces cream cheese, softened (I’d grab two, just to be sure you have enough.)

1/4 cup powdered sugar (double for two blocks of cream cheese)

Handfuls of fresh strawberries, sliced or any fruit you like with chocolate  ( I also served a bowl of extra strawberries on the side so people could add more if they wanted to.)

Melted Semi-sweet Ghiradelli Chocolate Chips (I used Hershey’s syrup instead)
DIRECTIONS

Prepare the brownie mix as per the instructions on the box.

Cut the parchment paper to the shape of the pizza stone (I didn’t use parchment in the bar pan, I sprayed it with cooking spray.)

Spread the brownie mixture on the parchment paper within 1 ” of the edges. It’s important to use the parchment paper because it will help prevent the brownie mixture from seeping over the stone while in the oven cooking (we all now know how that worked out.)

Cook the brownies until the center comes out clean with a knife or toothpick (15-20 minutes).

Cool completely. Flip brownie crust over onto a cooling stone and carefully remove the parchment paper then flip the round brown crust back onto the stone or a nice plate for serving. (I did none of this and served it right in the bar pan.)

Mix the softened cream cheese with the powdered sugar well and spread on the brownie pizza base within one inch of the edge.

Layer cut strawberries around the crust and then drizzle with melted chocolate (or in my case, with Hershey’s syrup.)

Enjoy!

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Speaking of hot fudge…

18 May

Homemade hot fudge. I like it hot, or cold, believe it or not.

I’m sure someone was, somewhere, right?

No seriously, I actually was speaking of hot fudge. Remember? On Monday?

No? Okay look here. Now do you remember?

So yes, when I was typing Monday’s post and talking all about ice cream and hot fudge, it reminded me that I bought the evaporated milk that I needed for my homemade hot fudge recipe the last time I was at the store, and that I did not in fact, buy any more hot fudge for the fridge because I intended to make some.

That post was just enough to inspire me (again) to get right on that and make the hot fudge. So the other night I had a meeting but while I was gone the kids were going to get to have ice cream as a special treat. The fudge is quick and easy to make so I made up a batch before I left for my meeting. The funny thing was though, when I went to actually make the fudge, we were completely out of chocolate chips.

I kid you not.

And it wasn’t me. I didn’t eat them. Well, at least I didn’t eat ALL of them.

The guilty part(ies) jumped into the car though and ran to TWO stores (the first one was out, how does that happen??) and finally came back with not one, but two bags of chocolate chips, just to be safe.

Crisis averted.

The cool thing (no pun intended here) about this hot fudge is that you can use it on ice cream or on fruit, or as a dip, or however you’d like to. But my all-time favorite thing to do with this fudge is to have it cold, one spoonful a day after my lunch. It’s just enough to give me that little bit of chocolate I crave. Every day.

Mmmm….a hot fudge sundae on a Monday night. Perfect for any night of the week!

When I came home the night of the meeting Don told me that the fudge had gotten thumbs up from everyone, so that was good. And the kids took pictures of their sundaes in my absence as well, also good so that we have some photos for this post. But the best news of all: there was plenty of fudge left for me. I had some right then and there with a banana (no ice cream, thanks) and then each day after my lunch, well, you know.

Even though I haven’t made this hot fudge in years and years, I’ve been making this same recipe since I was a kid living at home with my parents and I still have it on the exact same little square of paper from the Carnation Evaporated Milk can that it came off of that day. I wish it had a date on it, but it does not. It’s just old, that’s all I can tell you.

This recipe has been stuck to many a kitchen cabinet over the years. I believe all kitchen cabinets should be cork boards. I stick all kinds of things in them.

Well, enough talk about the recipe. Here IS the recipe:

CARNATION CHOCOLATE FUDGE SAUCE
INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups (12 ounce can) undiluted Carnation Evaporated Milk

2 cups (12 ounce package) semisweet chocolate chips

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

dash salt

DIRECTIONS

In a medium saucepan, bring evaporated milk to just a boil.

Add chocolate chips, return to a boil over medium heat stirring constantly until chocolate is melted, slightly thickened and smooth.

Remove from heat; stir in vanilla and salt.

Serve warm as dipping sauce for fresh fruit or spoon over cake or ice cream.

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On the side please

17 May

There’s something for everyone in this easy side dish.

Time for dinner: chicken. With rice. And a side.

Ugh. What to make “on the side” this time?

There’s green beans, asparagus, green beans, asparagus, corn, green beans…..

Okay our sides are not *quite* that routine, but almost. Throw in some cauliflower or broccoli on that list and that makes up our usual list of “on the side” veggies to go on our plates at dinnertime. Not everyone likes corn, not everyone likes peas or spinach so we only rarely have those, but they’re on the list every once in a while too.

Ugh.

I get tired of the same old thing.

On occasion though, I throw this one into the mix: carrrots/apples/craisins sauteed with honey, brown sugar, and butter. Sometimes I even put a squirt of maple syrup in there. Why not?

Now you know why it’s only on occasion. It’s a veggie and look: it’s dessert! Sort of.

It’s not something you can have every night obviously, and even if it didn’t have all those yummy ingredients in with the fruits and veggies, even this would get boring after a while too.

The thing I like about this one (other than the brown sugar and butter and honey) is that some people LOVE the carrots, and others LOVE the apples and craisins. There’s a lot of “I’ll eat your craisins” and “Can I have your apples?” going on at the table when I serve this on the side.

Although this is not a recipe, per se, it is a recommendation for a side dish which I’m passing along to you today. Give it a try and see how your family likes it!

My occasional side dish shown here with rice pilaf and marinated pork tenderloin.

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Happy Mother’s Week Day 5: Mom’s Black Bottom Squares

11 May

My mom’s Black Bottom Squares were just as I’d remembered them.

You may remember back in March, when I posted about Bakerella’s Black Bottom Cupcakes. I talked about how they reminded me of my mom’s Black Bottom brownies that I remembered having a long time ago, and remembered loving. When my mom saw the Bakerella recipe she too, thought it was similar to her Black Bottom squares recipe and she passed that recipe along to me. It took me a while to have a chance to make them, but last weekend I did get that chance.

I had never made these squares before, but they were just as I remembered them, dark chocolate and delicious. I prefer them served cold because of the cream cheese. This recipe also made me want to bake some Cream Cheese Swirl or Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies too, so that’s on my list of things to do next. I kept wanting to swirl these as well, but the recipe didn’t say to, so I didn’t do it!

Here is the recipe, which my mom put a note on: “from North Kingstown Newcomers Cookbook 1979,” so when I said it reminded me of something I’d had a long time ago, that explains it. These have been around for a while in our family. The recipe is credited to Jean Bolles in the cookbook itself.

Today’s recipe will complete my gifts to you for Mother’s Week, just in time for Mother’s Day on Sunday. If you are a mom enjoy, enjoy, enjoy your day on Sunday and if you are lucky enough to be able to spend the day with your mom, be sure to enjoy every minute!

Thanks for today’s recipe Mom!

BLACK BOTTOMS

This recipe is completed in two steps: the chocolate layer and the cream cheese layer.

INGREDIENTS

For the chocolate:

1 cup water

1/3 cup oil

1 Tbsp. vinegar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1/4 cups cocoa

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

For the cream cheese:

1 egg

1 eight ounce package of cream cheese

1/3 sugar

1/8 tsp. salt

1 six ounce pkg. chocolate chips

Before they bake…this is where I realllllly wanted to swirl that cream cheese, but I did not. Next time though, I might just do it!

DIRECTIONS

Combine water, cocoa, oil, vinegar, vanilla, flour, 1 cup sugar, baking soda, and 1/2 tsp. salt.

Pour into a well-greased 9×13 inch pan and sprinkle with a six ounce package of chocolate chips.

Beat together egg, cream cheese, 1/3 cup sugar and 1/8 tsp. salt.

Spoon over chocolate chips and bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

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Mother’s Week Day 4: Blueberry Cake

10 May

This cookbook has literally hundreds of recipes using blueberries.

As you know, we’re celebrating moms all week long here on The Whole Bag of Chips! Today we’re celebrating with a recipe I tried recently and immediately knew it’d be perfect for the week leading up to Mother’s Day. It’s from a cookbook we received from my parents back in 1999 when they visited Maine.

On this one particular day last month, I was in the mood for *something* but I didn’t know what. I didn’t want something chocolate, which is a little unusual, and I was scanning all the cookbooks and recipes I had until I found something that struck my fancy. I’ve used this cookbook a couple of times for muffins and crisps, but I had not done this cake before. It calls for fresh blueberries but I only had a bag of frozen, which increased the baking time but other than that, worked out great.

Caroline wanted to help me so I put her to the task of making the topping for the bread, which was listed as optional, but not to me!

This would be perfect for a brunch, a dessert for a hostess or just to have with a cup of coffee or tea. It was delicious and I’d make it again. So far I have not found a recipe in this cookbook that I would not make again! They’ve all been good.

Enjoy this recipe and enjoy the last couple of days of Mother’s Week!

Caroline was in charge of the topping, and she did a fabulous job!

INGREDIENTS

Blueberry Cake from “The Maine Wild Blueberry Cookbook”

2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 cup margarine (I used butter)

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups blueberries (I used a pack of frozen which increased our cook time by about another 20-30 minutes.)

This made a delicious dessert on a cold, rainy day!

DIRECTIONS

Mix dry ingredients together.

Cream margarine and sugar.

Beat in egg.

Stir in milk and add dry ingredients.

Add vanilla and berries.

Bake in greased 11×7 pan at 375 for 40 minutes. (Or til knife inserted into center comes out clean.)

Thumbs up for blueberry cake!

Topping:

1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. cinn

1/4 cup margarine (I used butter)

Mix to coarse crumbs and sprinkle over top before baking.

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The proof is in….the powdered cheese packet

3 May

A double batch, even!

A few weeks back I did a blog post about the convenience of using the Knorr sauce mix packets and I mentioned that yes, even I make hot dogs and mac & cheese, and that I actually love hot dogs with mac & cheese. I promised to prove it to you by taking a photo of my meal the next time we had that for dinner.

Well, today’s the day.

Dinner!

We had the meal this week for dinner and I did remember to take a picture. Here is my dinner table ready for one of the easiest dinners ever. You’ll notice though, I assuage my guilt by putting out a big veggie tray to go along with the mac & cheese and hot dogs. This particular tray had fresh green beans on it, which my kids love, but by the time I took the dinner table photo the beans were gone. They were there though.

So there you have it.

Hot dogs, mac & cheese and veggies. My house. Dinner.

I love hot dogs grilled on the stove top griddle!

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New dinner recipe: Butter Cream Chicken

2 May

This was a new recipe for us, and the entire family liked it!

I’m going to apologize right off the bat here: although I know that this recipe came from a blog called Jamie Cooks It Up, I have no idea how I happened upon the recipe, so I apologize to whomever found it first and passed it on to me.

It was delicious.

Very rarely do we have a meal that absolutely everyone likes. There’s just too many varying tastes in our house. However, this one, everyone liked it, even Alex. That’s saying a lot.

That all being said, it’s probably not the healthiest recipe, so kind of like my Chicken a la King recipe, it’s best had on occasion only.  I served ours with Rice Pilaf and my new favorite way to make asparagus: roasted. The sauce was so good though, I even put it on my rice. I would’ve put it on just about anything I could find, I liked it that much.

Here for you now, is Jamie’s recipe. Any modifications I chose to do are in parenthesis. The rest is as she wrote it.

Time: 30 minutes start to finish  (It did take me slightly longer on my first try. Like, 30 minutes longer.)
Yield: 6 servings
Recipe from Jamie Cooks It Up!

Simple ingredients!

INGREDIENTS:

4 chicken breasts (I used a bunch of tenders)
1 1/2 sleeves Ritz Cracker, ground into crumbs
Olive Oil
1 C chicken broth
4 T butter
1 C  + 2 T half and half, divided
1/2 t thyme, dried
2 T cornstarch
salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS
 
1. Cut your chicken up into chunks with some kitchen scissors. I usually cut each breast into thirds or sometimes fourths depending on the size of the breast. (*Because I used tenders I did not have to do steps one and two.)
2. Place your chicken into a gallon sized ziploc bag and seal the bag. Pound the chicken flat with a meat mallet. 
3. Grind the Ritz Crackers into crumbs in a small food processor. (*I put them in a ziploc bag and used a rolling pin to crush them up. Then I put the chicken right into the bag to coat with crumbs.) Place them in a shallow pan, I find a loaf pan to work best for this step. 
4. Press each chicken piece into the crumbs, being sure to coat both sides generously. Place each coated chicken piece on a plate. “Don’t they look lovely, June. Love the feathers.”…name that movie, anyone?
5. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Once it is good and hot, pour about 5 tablespoons Olive Oil into your pan. 
6. Let your oil heat up just for 30 seconds or so, and then put the chicken carefully in the pan. Don’t crowd it now. You’ll need to cook the chicken in two batches. 
7. Let the chicken cook until it’s nice and golden brown on the bottom, should take about 3-4 minutes. Turn each piece with a fork and allow it to cook on the other side. The chicken is done when it’s no longer pink inside. 
8. Remove the chicken to a separate plate and cook your second batch of chicken, adding another few tablespoons of oil to the pan before you add the chicken.
9. Once you have cooked all of the chicken you’ll have some beautiful crispy treasures left in the pan. Add 4 tablespoons of butter and 1 cup chicken broth to the pan allowing the butter to melt. Whisk the mixture around a bit, scraping the bottom of the pan to break the crispy pieces loose.
10. Add 1 cup half and half and 1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme. Whisk it around to incorporate and allow it to come to a boil. 
11. Into a small bowl pour 2 tablespoons half and half and 2 tablespoons cornstarch. Stir it around until smooth.
12. Pour the cornstarch mixture into your pan and stir it with a whisk. Allow it to return to a boil…as it heats it will thicken into a nice smooth sauce of wonder and bliss…here comes your kiss. 🙂
13. Remove it from the heat, give it a taste and add a bit of salt and pepper to you liking. 
14. Serve it over the crispy chicken and enjoy!

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Another great recipe from The Budget Gourmet Mom

1 May

Do you ever get tired of the same old thing?

I love asparagus! I found out earlier this year that most of my kids like asparagus, so I was so thrilled when Aldi’s started carrying it in their frozen veggies section because it meant that we could afford it and afford to have it any time we wanted to.

I bought it by the boatload. We had it all the time.

I’m tired of asparagus now.

Well, not tired of asparagus so much as I am tired of cooking it the same old way every time, which everyone likes: sauteed with oil and garlic in a frying pan on the stove, which is also the same way we make our green beans because it’s everyone’s favorite way.

I was happy to see a new cooking suggestion a few weeks back from The Budget Gourmet Mom blog that I follow. It was a recipe for Roasted Asparagus with Red Onions and Garlic and it made me wonder why I’d never thought to roast my asparagus before.

Sometimes you just need it to hit you over the head, I guess.

It also reminded me that I have another recipe for preparing asparagus that my mom used to make, so when I make that one, I’ll post it as well. I haven’t made it in years and years.

So here is Krista’s recipe for you for Roasted Asparagus with Red Onions and Garlic. If you’d like to see her beautiful photography to go along with her preparation of the asparagus, head on over to her blog. I go there EVERY day and I always love her posts.

Thank you Krista!

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 lb asparagus
  • 1 large clove garlic
  • a few thin slices of red onion
  • 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 400°
  2. Wash and trim the asparagus. Lay out on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil.
  3. Mince the garlic and sprinkle over the asparagus. Top with red onion rings.
  4. Bake 10 minutes. Serve immediately.

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Balsamic Glazed Salmon

18 Apr

This sauce was great over salmon, and later over chicken!

I love seafood, but recently I discovered that I’d developed a shellfish allergy. Therefore, there’s only certain seafood that I can actually eat. Thankfully, salmon is one of them. I love salmon. Usually I make it with hollandaise sauce over it and the last time I did, that went over well with everyone. However, I’m always on the lookout for new ways to serve things so when the Allrecipe.com Daily Recipe came for Balsamic Glazed Salmon, I had to try it. I love balsamic vinegar.

The recipe was easy and fast, and I served the sauce “on the side” so that if someone didn’t want sauce they didn’t have to have it. We had some sauce leftover and Don thought it’d be good on chicken so we saved it for another night. Sure enough, a few days later we served it on the side again, this time with some chicken breasts and it was just as good.

Here’s the recipe from Allrecipes.com

BALSAMIC GLAZED SALMON

Simple ingredients....and the chance to use my microplane zester!

INGREDIENTS

8 three ounce fillets of salmon about 3/4″ thick (I used five fillets since there’s five of us).

Freshly ground black pepper (or the kind in the jar)

3 tablespoons olive oil

SAUCE INGREDIENTS

4 and 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 and 3/4 cups chicken broth

3 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon orange juice

1 teaspoon grated orange peel

orange slices for garnish (we didn’t do that)


Grating one medium sized orange all the way around with the microplane zester was just enough for the amount of orange peel needed in the recipe.

DIRECTIONS

1. Place the salmon in an 11×8″ shallow baking dish. Sprinkle with black pepper and drizzle with oil. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork.

2. Stir the cornstarch, broth, vinegar, brown sugar, orange juice and orange peel in a two quart sauce pan over high heat to a boil. Cook and stir until the mixture boils and thickens.

3. Place the salmon on a serving platter and serve with the sauce. Garnish with the orange slices.

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Shrimp and Asparagus Pasta

10 Apr

I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I really love the “Daily Recipes” that I get in my email inbox from Allrecipes.com. I’m constantly making a note to try one out “some day” and last week I had a chance to try a new one. I had everything on hand with the exception of one ingredient: mushrooms, which I had actually had on hand but it turned out they weren’t good anymore so we threw them out. The recipe was fine without them but I’d add them in if I had them next time.

Everyone loved this recipe and I’d definitely make it again. I made some notes and adjustments below.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 pound fresh asparagus (I used a bag of frozen from Aldi’s.)
  • 1 (16 ounce) package egg noodles (I used a pound of wheat spaghetti.)
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (This was a lot. I’d do less next time and add a bit more lemon juice instead.)
  • 1 cup butter (I think you could cut some of this out as well. Maybe down to  1 1/2 sticks instead of two.)
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 pound medium shrimp – peeled and deveined (I used a bag of frozen from Aldi’s.)
  • 1 pound fresh mushrooms, thinly sliced
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

  1. In a small saucepan, boil or steam asparagus in enough water to cover until tender; chop and set aside.
  2. Bring a large pot of salted water to full boil, place the pasta in the pot and return to a rolling boil; cook until al dente. Drain well.
  3. In a large saucepan, saute garlic in the olive oil over medium-low heat until the garlic is golden brown.
  4. Place butter and lemon juice in the saucepan. Heat until the butter has melted. Place the shrimp in the saucepan and cook until the shrimp turns pink. Place the mushrooms and asparagus into the saucepan, cook until mushrooms are tender.
  5. Toss the shrimp and vegetable mixture with the egg noodles and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

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